What To Do with the Time You Save NOT Scooping Dog Poop
You have 86,400 seconds in your day. Of course, you’re likely eating, working, and sleeping for around 75% of those seconds. What do you do with the seconds remaining after those essential tasks? And how many seconds do you spend picking up dog poop in your yard?
If you’re like most people, you constantly feel like time is getting away from you. But unlike other forms of currency, you can’t make more time. You have what you have. Instead of spending it on boring and disgusting tasks like picking up dog poop, why not spend it playing with your dog and your family?
How Long Does It Take To Scoop Dog Poop?
For a pro dog poop scooper, scooping an average-sized yard to clean a week’s worth of poop from one dog takes about 7-10 minutes or less. If you’re not a pro (and let’s face it—how many of us take the time to become pro dog poop scoopers?), this task will likely take you 20-30 minutes.
Of course, this is for an average yard and a single dog. Add more square footage to your yard and your task will take longer. Add more dogs (read: more poop) and you’ve just increased the time again.
So, if you only pick up poop once a week, that’s at least 30 minutes gone from that day. Realistically, especially if you don’t have sophisticated poop-scooping tools, you’re probably looking at an hour or more gone each week!
You love your dog, so, obviously, you don’t see this as a major inconvenience. You want your dog to be healthy and live in a poop-free yard. But you might still be thinking: “What could I do with those 30-60 minutes (or more) each week?”
What You Can Do with Your Hour SAVED Not Scooping Poop
Here are a few ideas of things you could do in a single day if you DIDN’T have to spend any time picking up dog poop in your yard.
1. Read a Book
Do you like reading but feel like you never have time for it? If you’re not scooping dog poop, take the 20-30 minutes (or 5-10 if you pick up poop daily) you would have spent doing that after work to sit down with a book.
This doesn’t have to be a major time commitment—just take a few minutes to read and you’ll feel much better about your day. Plus, you’ll be learning a lot!
2. Play with Your Kids
Making the time to play with your kids after a busy day is hard. But if you come home to a chore-free afternoon, you’ll have at least 20-30 minutes to play a quick card game, board game, or even video game.
Alternatively, if someone else has scooped the poop in your yard, you can even take the kids out back and run around in the grass for a game of tag, giant jenga, hide and seek, or whatever other outdoor game you love.
3. Play with Your Dog
If your dog is running around in a clean space, it should be a lot more fun to play with them! Take a few minutes after work to play some fetch or tug-of-war or whatever game your dog loves.
4. Clean the Kitchen
If your yard is clean, you can easily move on to the next major task—cleaning inside the house! Within 20-30 minutes (or less), you could easily unload the dishwasher, reload the breakfast/lunch dishes, and wipe the counters. That will leave you with a clean kitchen for cooking supper!
5. Watch a Show
Don’t feel like working or expending a lot of energy after work? Well, if your dog is happy and your yard is clean, 20-30 minutes is the perfect amount of time to indulge in a funny show. Try “The Office,” “Parks and Rec,” “Cheers,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” or “Frasier.”
Kids’ shows are also often around 20-30 minutes, so if you have kids, maybe you can sit down and watch their favorite program with them after work instead of picking up poop in your yard.
6. Have a Drink
What’s your drink of choice for the afternoon? Whether you like coffee, tea, milk, wine, beer, or any number of other options, it’s great for your mental and physical health to be able to sit down, relax, and refuel with a delicious drink before completing your day or night.
7. Start Up a New Hobby
There is an abundance of hobbies that you could easily pick up with just 20-30 minutes of practice time once or twice a week. You could try:
- Knitting or crocheting
- Wood-carving
- Painting or drawing
- Dancing
- Playing an instrument
- Making pottery
- Roller-skating
- Biking
- Redecorating your home
- Watering and nurturing house plants
- Sewing
- Working on a bike/motorcycle/car or other project vehicle
- Writing
Think of something you’ve had an interest in in the past or that you’d like to be able to do in the future. Take 20 or 30 minutes to practice each week or a few minutes each day and you’ll eventually get to where you can do it with ease!
8. Follow a Budget
While this option may not sound fun, it can be incredibly important. If you’re struggling to stay ahead of your money, a mere 20-30 minutes a week (or 5-10 minutes a day) could help you set a weekly/monthly budget, track your expenses, and stay on top of your spending.
To make this easier, use an app like EveryDollar to keep track of your expenses and see where your money is actually going.
9. Call Someone
You could also text if you don’t like a phone conversation (and the person you’re talking to doesn’t either). Either way, a fantastic use of 20-30 minutes (or even 5-10 minutes) could be catching up with someone you haven’t spoken to in a while!
Sit down and call your grandma, grandpa, a parent, an old friend, an old boss, your mentor/mentee, or whomever else you’d like to talk to. Take the time to invest in a conversation and you won’t regret it!
10. Exercise
If you’re like most people, regular exercise is a habit you’d like to develop but really don’t have time for. While 20 or 30 minutes once or twice a week may not be what you’re hoping for, it’s definitely better than nothing!
Find a YouTube program, take a job, or even head to the gym with the extra few minutes you’re NOT using to pick up the poop in your yard. And if you spend 5-10 minutes a day picking up poop, using those few minutes for exercise instead could be incredibly beneficial to your state of mind and your physical health.
11. Do Nothing
Why not? If you tend to pick up dog poop after a busy day, you may want to take some time to simply sit and do nothing. It could do wonders for your peace of mind if you were simply to sit (perhaps in your clean yard) and enjoy the quiet. Pray, meditate, journal, or even just stroke your dog’s coat while you enjoy the peace of having nothing pressing to do for a few minutes.
12. Take a Walk
Your dog loves getting out for a walk, right? Take the 20 or 30 minutes you’re not spending to pick up your dog’s mess and take them out for a stroll. Although you may want to bring along a couple of doggy bags just in case your pup drops a load out on the sidewalk.
Get Your Yard Clean Without Picking Up Poop Yourself
What do you think? If the idea of an extra 20-30 minutes of free time each week sounds appealing to you, it may be time to think about getting some help scooping your dog’s poop!
Our team would be happy to help. Check out our services and get in touch with us so we can pick up your dog’s poop for you and leave you with a clean yard and a few extra minutes of free time!